Kookie Still Breathes
Hey guys, So, I know it's been a long time. I don't know what drew me here, but here I am! I've been a deviant for 12 years, and I've had a lot of good memories here. The site has definitely changed A LOT, but the bones are the same. I mean, I found my journal, and I'm typing, and I'm talking to myself as I write this, so I'm just as weird as usual. I haven't been sculpting, obviously. Late last year, I thought I was going to get back into it. I got this little rush of inspiration. I was feeling really empty and alone, and something pulled me back to sculpting for a little bit of comfort. I had recently lost a really close friend (NOT due to death, but just really shitty circumstances), and one day I sculpted a MechOwlie. Something I hadn't done in a really long time. I had originally thought of selling it, but then I named it after him, and then I couldn't sell it anymore. Because I just couldn't... This is Cucco, MechOwlie No.70. It's been a year since I lost them, and I still miss my friend every single day. But unfortunately, life must go on, with or without them. Woozle wuzzle. I also made an un-named Industrial Heart for the first time in a very long time for a fellow polymer clay artist. Number 151. It was to be used in one of her sculptures as a collaboration project, someday. We'll see what happens! Not long after this, the inspiration left me, and I hit a wall. And I haven't sculpted since. Maybe it'll come back. It always does, in some capacity. I'm hoping it does. Around the same time, I also got the opportunity to paint some vinyl dragon blanks for Becca of Dragons & Beasties for a charity event, so that kinda distracted me for a little while. It was something I haven't done before, and Becca had faith that it was something I could do. What am I up to these days? Well, I'm filling the void with decorated sugar cookies, now. That's mostly what I get up to. You can find me on Facebook under Sweethart Baking Experiment and I hang out on Instagram under my handle @kookienomz. No, I couldn't let go of the Kookie thing. It's part of me. Even my YouTube channel, where I do cookie tutorials, I nicknamed my channel "Kookievision". Obviously, cookies/kookies were always in the cards, huh? Weird. If I do any artwork or sculpting, Facebook is the first place you'll see it. If it's coffee painting or drawing or mandalas or anything like that, it'll be on my Crow Black Dream page. Oh yeah, did I tell you that I coffee paint and draw mandalas, too? Jebus. If it's sculpting, it'll be on my Monster Kookies page. Yeah, I've got three different pages. I just like to make things complicated, apparently. I like to make stuff in all sorts of mediums. That's also why I used the @kookienomz handle for IG, because I share *all* my stuff there. It's a big confusing mix of cookies, art, sculpting, mandalas, coffee painting, etc. Mostly cookies, though. If you guys find me, and you (used to) follow me on here, come introduce yourself - I'll probably remember you! I spent enough time here and got to know so many of you that your usernames are permanently etched into my skull, I swear... <3 Kookie
Still Kicking
I'm glad to see that there are many of you who are still kicking around. Especially the ones who have been here for almost a decade (or more!) like I have. That's pretty amazing.
So, there is this video lingering around on our local cable providers channel, and guess who's ugly mug it is? MINNNE.
It's a little look behind the scenes of Monster Kookies in Episode 3 of Collectors & Collectibles. Take a looksie and let me know what you think. Damn does that camera ever add a gazillion pounds. I kid, I kid... it's really all those cupcakes and tacos, not gonna lie.
Maybe I need to exercise those sculpting fingers. Aw well.
I HAVE been working on a MechOwlie - his name is Dev, actually. Dev hasn't made it to the oven yet, though. I tried to take a photo of him with my cell phone - a WIP - but it made him look squished and contorted. And remember that MechOwlie I mentioned that I was working on after a long sculpting hiatus? The one that fell in the oven and got all messed up? He makes a feature in the video above.
Polymer clay is NOT forgiving AFTER baking. Your mistakes will be preserved forever. You know what they say - you can't polish a turd.
Anyways, I'm gonna go back to listening the 1989 Batman OST by Danny Elfman. Because it's fucking amazing. UP THE CATHEDRAL? YES.
Love and cupcakes, guys. <3
insertwittytitlehere
Long time, no write. I do check DA once in awhile, though - it's just one of those sites that I can't abandon completely, even though I haven't been up to much sculpting these days.
That's the artists life, though (if you can call me that, I've always struggled with that term). Sometimes the motivation and inspiration leaves you. In my case, it's been almost a year since I last sculpted something. It doesn't help that I am the kind of person that I am. I'll spare you the story of my life, and just tell you that inspiration and motivation often elude me.
I always have to be doing something. And if I'm not sculpting, well, I better figure out something else to do. Something productive and creative. I've always loved cooking and baking - in fact, I went to college for it. I figured I might as well turn it into something that'll keep the bills paid. So that's what I've been up to. It's still artsy, just a different medium.
Cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chocolate... that's what I've been up to. It's been interesting. I've done a lot of markets and even some weddings. It's not as creative as sculpting, but it's like building with Lego, and I like Lego.
My sculpting studio sits vacant and cold, though. I went in there a few months ago to tidy it up, hoping that by cleaning it I might re-ignite a little spark, and it felt like it might happen. I even finished a sculpture that I had started a long time ago. It decided to fall over in the oven and as a result it is a permanently hardened mistake - completely squished on the one side. That little shred of inspiration - gone, right out the window. Aw well. I guess it just wasn't meant to work out the way I wanted it to.
I've also got myself not one but two serial copy cats - one who copied my work for years and then fell off the face of the Earth only to come back and do it all over again, and then another one who just recently started. Pretty much all of the stuff I've made has been copied. The only way I could deal with it is with a great amount of time and money - both of which I don't have, and I just can't be bothered to give a crap about it do anything about it anymore, anyways. People can be real scum, that's just the way of it. I haven't made anything recently, so they'll have to go back and copy the things they forgot to copy the first time around, I guess.
In the past while I've lost two people in my life that were important to me. Everybody dies, that's just the way of it. Doesn't change the fact that it can be a real bitch, though. One of them was very unexpected, and the other was sick, then better, then sick, then better, then boom - sick and gone. Death is a real messed up thing - they are there, then they aren't, and it doesn't feel real. Until you need to talk to them or see something that reminds you of them, then it's real again and again.
I didn't plan on writing this much, but there ya go. I'm still alive.
<3 Kookie
YouTube and Calling All Artists!
Don't get me wrong - most people are great! But I would much rather be behind the scenes doing what I do best.
Did I tell you that I started a YouTube channel? People have been telling me for YEARS to start a YouTube channel but I didn't really give it much thought until now. I think I have about ten videos over the past month and a half or so, so you should check me out!
Monster Kookies on YouTube: click here
ALSO, I am having an awesome contest on my Facebook page! SO ARTISTS, I know a lot of you aren't on Facebook, but you can still view the contest even if you don't have an FB account. BUT you can send me your entries through DA, as well! Just NOTE me. Here are the rules:
THE MK STEAMPUNKIFIED CONTEST
Do you guys like to draw? Well, I am holding a contest in which you will draw me a steampunk/industrialized animal or object - anything you want. One per person, please. Then, you send me a message through the Monster Kookies FB page and attach the drawing you made. I will add these drawings to a special album here on FB, and on DECEMBER 1st, I will be choosing a winner. What does the winner get? Their drawing will come to life as a one-of-a-kind Monster Kookies figurine.
SO SPREAD THE WORD. SHARE! And get drawing - contest entries will be accepted until November 31st, 11:59pm ET. Make sure to sign the photo, of course. Send me your best!
MK Steampunkified Contest Entries: click here
IF YOU GUYS COULD SHARE THIS ENTRY WITH FELLOW DEVIANTS, that would be awesome! I'm trying to create a HUGE collection of drawings!
Even if your drawing isn't absolutely amazing, it is the CONCEPT that is most important. <3AND FINALLY... I am trying to collect points to get a new DA subscription. I really miss mine, and haven't had one for over a year, now. If you'd like to donate points, you can do it here: click here
I am really excited about doing some new sculptures - I've been playing around the copper colours and that lovely green oxidized patina colour. I should have a new mechanical bird in that style up in my Etsy Shop very soon. After that, a MechOwlie in that style will follow. I can't make these MechOwlies quick enough. I've got a bit of a waiting list for them, at the moment...
I've also got a bake sale coming up. I'll be making sweet treats for our local Maker's Market. There was a serious gap for markets during the "off-season" so a fellow foodie came up with the Maker's Market. I will be representing the Sweethart Baking Experiment, which is basically my FB page where I share all my baking. I've always got a lot on my plate, apparently... keeping busy keeps me sane. I'm sure many of you can identify with that! Be good, guys. <3
Horizon
Thanks for your comments on my last entry - it was nice to see that some of you are still hanging around here.
I still feel relatively the same since my last entry...I've got one day left until two weeks of full-time madness at my 'real job'. I generally work there part time (I sculpt in my studio the other half of the time). I get to be stuck on my own for those two weeks when it's realistically a two person job (if you want anything to really get done). Should be interesting - that's all I really gotta say about it. But I have a feeling that I may be throwing in the towel soon thereafter. It's just not for me, anymore. I wake up and dread every single day of it, and there comes a point where you gotta say 'enough is enough' and walk away, despite how bad people will make you feel about your decision.
Something interesting happened lately, though - a piece of my work, notably Oliver the Mechanical Birdie...
He underwent a little bit of a colour change, courtesy of Photoshop, and was used on the cover of a French version of Haruki Murakami's "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle".
That's pretty exciting, methinks. I've never had anything of mine on a cover before, so it's definitely a new milestone, for sure.
I haven't been sculpting as much, lately, but I figured that if I am not being constructive in that manner that I should be using this know-how to show others how I do what I do. So I started a youtube channel.
Monster Kookies on YouTube: TheMonsterKookies
I realize that most of you can't really put a voice or a face to my name - now you can. Lucky you. Hahahah.
Anyways, check me out, like, subscribe, all that youtube-y stuff.
My partner in crime, Jason, also has a YouTube channel. Mostly about gaming and off-roading. He's been heavy into the Space Engineers and StarForge games, lately, so check him out too if you're into that stuff:
Jason on YouTube: BoNeS487
Anyways, I don't have much more to say... it's been cold here, very Autumn-like weather, and it's been lovely and gloomy. I'm diggin' it.
<3Kookie